In the UK anyone can open a hair salon without a licence, most of the trade is self-employed, and since October 2024 tips that an employer controls must be shared fairly by law. Salongram, a free Android app, keeps the diary, the staff rota and payment records, but it takes no card payments.
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Salongram is a free salon booking app for UK salons and barbershops: appointments, clients, staff hours and WhatsApp reminders in one Android app.
Three things stand out. There is no compulsory licence for hairdressers or barbers, so standards rest on training and reputation. The trade is made of very small businesses and self-employed chair renters. And the law now says how employers must share tips. Bank holidays that change from nation to nation complete the picture for the diary.
The Hair and Barber Council was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1964 to keep a register of hairdressers and barbers, and it says registration is currently voluntary. In its own words the industry is otherwise unregulated, so anyone can set up as a hairdresser or barber. Registration works as a mark of training rather than a legal requirement.
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 came fully into force on 1 October 2024. An employer must make sure the tips, gratuities and service charges it receives or controls are allocated fairly among the workers at each place of business, with regard to the statutory code of practice. Tips a self-employed renter keeps for themselves are a different matter.
England and Wales have eight bank holidays in 2027, Scotland nine and Northern Ireland ten. Scotland adds 2 January and St Andrew's Day, Northern Ireland adds St Patrick's Day and the Battle of the Boyne, and Scotland had an extra one-off bank holiday on 15 June 2026. When a bank holiday falls at the weekend, a substitute weekday, usually the Monday, takes its place.
GOV.UK states that an employer does not have to give paid leave on bank or public holidays. So whether the salon opens on Easter Monday or the summer bank holiday is the owner's decision, and it belongs in the rota: who works, who has the day off, and which days the diary is closed.
UK Finance counted 49.7 billion payments in 2025. Cards made up 64% of them and contactless 39%, while cash fell to 8%, about 3.9 billion payments. 65% of adults were registered for at least one mobile wallet, up from 57% a year earlier, so a phone held to the card reader is now a normal way to pay.
According to NHBF figures for 2024, 58% of people working in hair and beauty are self-employed. Many rent a chair, a space or a room in someone else's salon and run their own column of clients, which is why the trade body lists chair, space and room renters alongside salons and barbershops.
The NHBF counts over 63,800 hair and beauty businesses in the UK. More than 80% employ fewer than five people, 95% fewer than ten, and nearly 64% turn over less than 99,000 pounds a year. The workforce shrank by around 16,500 people, while about 6,700 people started hairdressing and barbering apprenticeships in England in 2023/24.
More than 80% of UK hair and beauty businesses employ fewer than five people, by NHBF figures. Salongram is free, with no fee per stylist, so a two-chair salon gets the same diary, client records and reports as a large one.
With 58% of the hair and beauty workforce self-employed, many salons host chair or room renters. Each renter can install Salongram on their own phone and keep their own clients and prices, apart from the owner's business.
England and Wales have eight bank holidays in 2027, Scotland nine and Northern Ireland ten, and paid leave on them is not automatic. Give time off to whoever takes the day, and bookings go only to the people who are in.
Since October 2024 tips an employer controls must be allocated fairly. Salongram does not split tips, but it keeps each stylist's appointments, services and payments, a useful record when you explain how the tips were shared out.
Cash was only 8% of UK payments in 2025. Mark each appointment paid by card or cash and the end-of-day report splits the two, while your own card reader still takes the money.
We could not find an official or independent survey of how UK clients book, so we will not invent a figure. What a small UK salon handles is familiar: calls to the salon phone, messages, walk-ins for a fringe trim and regulars rebooking at the till. Salongram keeps all of it in one diary on a phone or tablet.
Each stylist has their own working days, breaks and time off, so the booking screen shows who is in and warns if you pick someone who is off. Holiday cover and a junior's college day are set once, not remembered.
Staff hours and time offServices can carry a rebook interval, so the app lists who is due back for a cut and finish or a colour, and a six-week regular can be booked while they are still at the desk.
Client history and rebookingClients who think of booking after you close can use your booking link or QR code. They choose services and a real free time, and the request waits in the app for you to accept or change.
The booking linkA self-employed renter can run their own free Salongram on their own phone, with their own clients and prices. The app has no shared logins, so each business keeps its own diary.
How the schedule worksAn illustrative day, not research: a four-chair salon in north London open until eight on Thursday, with two employed stylists, a junior on an apprenticeship and a self-employed colourist who rents a chair and keeps her own diary.
The owner opens the day in staff columns: the junior is marked off for her college day, so a booking with her shows a warning before anyone confirms it.
A regular calls about a half head of foils; typing 2 lists every time from two o'clock, with her usual stylist's free slots.
A walk-in wants a fringe trim and pays cash; it goes on the Quick Payment screen without creating a client.
A cancellation frees a slot; the waiting list shows a client who asked for any Thursday evening, and she is booked in.
The sales report splits card and cash for the day, ready to check against the card reader before the till is closed.
Most UK payments now go through a card reader, with contactless and phone wallets common and cash a small share. Salongram records each payment as card or cash, plus deposits and refunds, so the day's totals match your card reader. It does not take the payment itself.
Cards were 64% of all UK payments in 2025 and contactless 39%. Record the sale as card in the app after it goes through your own reader.
65% of adults were registered for a mobile wallet in 2025. To your till it is still a card payment, so it is recorded as card.
Cash was 8% of payments in 2025. A cash payment from a walk-in can be saved in seconds on the Quick Payment screen.
Type in your own numbers. A no-show is a slot nobody else could take; reminders and a waiting list are how most salons win part of it back.
An estimate from the numbers you enter (a month counted as 4.33 weeks). Nothing is sent or stored. Salongram is free to download.
Download Salongram free from Google Play, choose pounds as the currency and add your services with UK names and prices, such as cut and finish, blow-dry or half head foils.
Add each stylist with their working days, breaks and time off, and mark the bank holidays you close on, using the dates for your nation.
Create the optional account to back up the diary, get your booking link and QR code, and put the link on your website or Instagram.
No. The Hair and Barber Council keeps the register set up by the 1964 Act, but registration is voluntary and the industry is otherwise unregulated. Many hairdressers still choose to register as a sign of training. Salongram itself needs no licence; it simply keeps your diary, clients and payment records.
No. Since October 2024 employers must allocate the tips and service charges they receive or control fairly among workers, with regard to the statutory code of practice. Salongram records payments as card or cash but has no tip-pooling or payroll feature, so keep your tip records and policy in your accounts or payroll system.
Yes, on their own phone with their own free copy. Salongram has one account per salon and no separate staff logins, so a self-employed renter with their own clients and prices is best set up as their own business, keeping their diary separate from yours.
No. Clients pay at your own card reader, by contactless, chip and PIN or a phone wallet, and you mark the booking as paid by card. Salongram never touches the money, which also means there are no transaction fees from us.
Mark the days you close as closed days, or give staff time off on the rota, using the dates for your nation from GOV.UK. Scotland and Northern Ireland have holidays that England and Wales do not, so a salon in Glasgow and one in Belfast will close on different days.
Yes. Salongram is free on Android and iPhone and covers the diary, client records, staff rota, payment records and WhatsApp reminders. There is no fee per stylist. It does not take card payments or send SMS, though clients on any phone can use your booking link, and the app is on Android and iPhone.
A chair renter needs a diary that belongs to their own business, not the salon owner's. Salongram works that way: install it on your own phone, add your services and prices, and share your own booking link or QR code. It does not work out what rent you owe the salon.
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